Presented by Lieutenant Colonel Art Brown-Retired
Nancy Morris introduced Lieutenant Colonel Art Brown to the club Rotarians and guests. LCol Brown was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1975 and served for over 38 years. He has been stationed in numerous locations throughout Canada and the United States. He is a former parachute rigger and qualified jumper, an Electric Sensor Specialist onboard anti-submarine patrol aircraft, and an Air Weapons Controller involved with the air defence of North America. LCol Brown has served as a military observer with the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as operations officer with NATO in The Netherlands, as senior operations officer for the Canadian Air Wing in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and as advisor to the Afghan Air Force in Kabul, Afghanistan. He retired in 2015. He is here tonight in support and part of;
LCol Art Brown started his presentation with a short “like” regarding our Happy Buck section of the meeting. He advised that he had limited coinage on his person tonight, otherwise he would have made an earlier H.B. announcement himself. He was very pleased to have spoken to over 1,200 people in the past week regarding the Centenary of W.W.I and Remembrance Day. He spoke to 800 students, on Friday, at a local high school. He has been to 4 schools in the past week to give presentations. He enjoys connecting with smaller groups for speeches but is happy to engage in any size crowd for this topic.
Precise words count. He had an incident at the U.S.A. border crossing at Pembina N.D. when he responded to a question with the wrong words. He and his car were thoroughly searched, and he was delayed for hours. He missed his flight out of Fargo and had to pay for an unexpected night of accommodations in Fargo in order to fly out the next day. All because of the poor selection of words.
Armistice does not mean surrender. Armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, since it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace [Wikipedia].
On June 28, 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated at Sarajevo. This was followed with a series of talks, threats and mobilizations. On August 4th, 1914 Great Britain declares war on Germany. This automatically brings Canada into WWI. LCol Brown showed a slide that indicated the Allied Forces countries as well as the Central Powers countries. Truly a World War when you can see the countries that were involved. Of note is that Italy started on the Allied side but switched over to the German Central Powers side in 1915. Many thought that the war would only last 3 to 4 months at the most. They were very wrong.
Canada had four (4) Divisions of men in the war. That was 620,000 men, with 425,000 of them serving overseas. 60,000 died (52,000 in action – therefor 8,000 died by other means). There were 172,000 Canadians wounded, of these -138,000 were wounded in battle. We were then shown a comparison photo of a soldier in full gear from WWI era vs. a current day soldier. A soldier today carries about 75 lbs. of extra gear on them when battle ready.
By August of 1918 the Allied troops had won major victories in the past few months. This was not the case for the first few years. The Germans had 1000`s of soldiers killed in action, taken prisoner. This led to low moral on the German side. The Germans were making secret contact / talking with the West as they were aware that the U.S.A. was about to enter the war with millions of fresh troops. This was April of 1917. It would still take several months for the States to organize in Britain prior to being able to fight in Europe.
The U.S.A. was brought into the war due to unrestricted submarine attacks on their flagged ships. The sinking of U.S. ships had stopped for awhile, but then resumed. Also, January 19th, 1917 there was the Zimmerman Communication - German Government sent instructions to German Minister in Mexico (von Eckhardt) to negotiate alliance with Mexico and Japan against the United States. The Germans had managed to develop a blockade of shipping from North America, the lifeblood for Britain.
When the armistice was signed on Nov.11, 1918 it occurred in a railcar parked 60 miles North of Paris. Representatives from Great Britain, France and Germany were present. Canada was not. The agreement was reached at 0500hrs Nov. 11, 1918 and was to come to effect at 1100hrs on Nov. 11, 1918. This is known as the Treaty of Versailles. A picture was shown of the actual railcar being removed from a museum in 1940 by Hitler`s Nazi troops. Hitler had the railcar moved back to the same spot that the Treaty of Versailles was signed, he then sat in the same chair that the German signatory sat in for the Treaty of Versailles back in 1918. This was to show the power of the German army now in 1940. It is thought that the railcar was destroyed in 1945 by the S.S..
The word of the armistice signing was starting to get dispersed by 0540hrs on Nov. 11th, 1918. Between then and 1100hrs, 800 British soldiers died. General Black Jack Pershing [USA], believed that the Germans deserved a final “lesson”. This extra fighting caused an additional 3,000 U.S. casualties. Canadian Officers got the word of the cessation in fighting by 0630hrs. Soldiers in the field had knowledge of the armistice by 0900hrs.
The final British soldier killed in action in WWI was George Edwin Ellison (1878 – 11 November 1918). He died at 0930hrs (90 minutes before the armistice came into effect) while on a patrol on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium.
The final French soldier killed in action occurred at 1044hrs on Nov. 11, 1918. The headstone actually states that the death occurred on the 10th of November. This was because the commanding officers wanted to gain as much ground as possible prior to the Armistice being in place. This led to numerous additional deaths. They didn`t want these additional deaths to be listed to have officially occurred on Nov. 11th , 1918, so close to the end of the war.
The last Canadian soldier killed was Private George Lawrence Price (December 15, 1892 – November 11, 1918). He is traditionally recognized as the last soldier of the British Empire to be killed during the First World War. George Price was fatally shot in the chest by a German sniper as he stepped out of a house into the street. He died at 10:58 a.m., November 11, 1918. His death was just two minutes before the armistice ceasefire, that ended the war, came into effect at 11 a.m. The Canadians had advanced south of Mons to Ville-sur-Haine in Belgium. He was shot by retreating Germans.
The last American soldier killed in action was Henry Gunther at 1059hrs. He rushed a German machine gun position and was warned off initially by the Germans shooting over his head. He did not stop, they were forced to shoot him as he advanced on their position.
The last German soldier shot was just shortly after the 1100hrs armistice had taken effect. The German was approaching American soldiers to advise them that the war was over.
The first British Officer killed was Lieutenant Maurice James Dease, V. C., killed in action on 23rd August 1914 aged 24.
The first British soldier killed in action was Private John Henry Parr (19 July 1897 – 21 August 1914). He was killed in the Mons area of Belgium. The last British soldier killed, George Ellison, was also killed in the Mons, Belgium area. Their graves face each other in St. Symphorien Military Cemetery near Mons, Belgium. The cemetery at St. Symphorien was established by the German Army during the First World War as a final resting place for British and German soldiers killed at the Battle of Mons. The cemetery remained in German hands until the end of the war, and afterwards came under the care of the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission. It also contains the graves of Commonwealth and German soldiers who died in the final days of the conflict. There are 227 British, 284 German and 2 Canadian servicemen buried or commemorated at St Symphorien, of whom 105 remain unidentified. Lieutenant Dease and Private Parr are separated by one row in St. Symphorien Cemetery. There is a quote written in German in St. Symphorien Cemetery, “Enemies in Life but United in Death”. The Germans buried their soldiers by rank and Regiment. Commonwealth soldiers are all buried as if the same in death.
Q/A
1.-Ed Gramiak questioned how the word of the armistice was circulated on the battlefield?
A.-Radio, foot, horse, mule, telegraph.
2.-Kristi Meek wondered what the reaction is like in the various schools that the presentation is given?
A.-Varies greatly. Grade 8 students seem to ask a lot of questions. Other times in larger groups there are not many questions. He prefers smaller gatherings.
3.-Nancy Morris advised that Dave`s uncle was a messenger in WWI. Many suffered from shell shock. Some would turn to alcohol and drugs.
A.- LCol Art Brown`s father was a motorcycle dispatch rider. The life expectancy was short due to being an obvious important target with valuable information. Many died in Britain as well.
4.-Ed Thompson wanted LCol Art Brown`s opinion as to what future conflicts may look like.
A.- Unlikely to have a world conflict again. Korean War was less of a world event. Vietnam was even less and the type of war had changed to a guerilla style of fighting enemy. The enemy doesn`t wear a uniform anymore. Everyone in the battle zone seems to be armed, but it may be for self defence only. Care must be taken. A big war would likely involve nuclear weapons.
He is often asked if we won the war in Afghanistan. After 14 years of conflict trying to establish peace and security, we must understand that their understanding of this is different than ours. Some type of law and order instead of total lawlessness is a positive step.
Mark Labossiere thanked LCol Art Brown for his service and interesting presentation. He was advised that a donation in his name would be made to ShelterBox.
